The 90 Day Rule of Marketing (and why consistency works)

Sometimes, we all struggle with the feeling of “oh my gosh, nothing is happening in my business right now”.

And in those moments, it can be really tempting to give up on what you’ve been doing and desperately try something else.

But there’s something that helps me stay motivated to be consistent with my marketing efforts, even in those super stressful moments: The 90 Day Rule of Marketing.

What is the 90 Day Rule of Marketing?

The 90 Day Rule of Marketing is the idea that whatever you are doing right now (or conversely, don’t do) will show its impact on your business 90 days from now.

So for me, whenever I have one of those moments (we all have them!) when I’m not getting new clients or new subscribers or whatever the case may be, I just keep at whatever marketing strategy I’m using because I know that if I keep at it, things will be better 90 days from now.

This can be super hard because in this day and age, we’re used to instantaneous results or feedback, right? And so that’s what we want from our marketing too.

But sadly, that’s not how a lot of things work, and your business and marketing is one of them.

How I saw this play out in my old business

Back in the day, before I started my current coaching and consulting business, I had a direct sales business. And in that business, it was very easy to see the 90 day rule play out in a very obvious way. 

So let’s use that, just for illustration purposes.

One of the things I did to sell products was run home parties, usually hosted at a friend or customer’s house.

So let’s say it’s January, and my friend Sarah hosts a party for me, and 10 people come to the party.

And then let’s say that 3 of those 10 buy products and want to host parties for me in the future. One does February, one does March, and one does April.

Then let’s say, at each of those parties, 10 people attend and 3 of those 10 also want to book parties with me.

So you can see how just from the one party I hosted in January at Sarah’s house, it directly led to more and more results for my business, all within 90 days (and continuing).

For people who were newer to the direct sales business I was part of, or wanted to reach a certain goal or incentive or something, I would often say:

“Work really hard once to front load the effort now, because you’re going to see the impact 90 days from now”

Then after that it’s all just maintenance!

Now, it’s really really easy to see how this 90 Day Rule of Marketing works in a direct sales business. But in other industries, it might not be so clear or cut and dry.

But when I transitioned out of direct sales, I trusted that it would still work out this way.

And it did. I’ve seen the 90 Day Rule play out countless times across many many industries, always creating a snowball effect.

So what does this mean for you as an online business owner?

As an online business owner, I want you to take this idea, and instead of getting discouraged that what you’re doing isn’t working, or giving up on a tactic after just a week or two…

Instead of trying something for a week and then saying to yourself “Well, this isn't working, I haven't got any new business, I'm just gonna give up, I'm obviously 

terrible at this, I suck, nobody's interested in me” and all those terrible things we all say to ourselves sometimes…

Instead, I want you to trust and believe and just keep being consistent with a few things, even when it feels like it’s not working.

Now, this doesn’t mean “do all the things.” You’ll never hear me say that.

This is picking a few things and being super consistent with them, and trusting that it will transform your business 90 days from now. 

And also remember that if you keep starting and stopping and being inconsistent, that will also impact your business 90 days from now (and not in the way you want!)

Think of your marketing like a train

One analogy to help you think about how this works is if you think of your marketing like an old steam train.

It takes a lot of energy to get that train up to full speed.

And once it’s at full speed, it’s hard to stop because it’s got momentum.

It can be really hard to trust in this when you’re just starting out.

I know in the first year of this business doing marketing strategy and coaching, it was a lot of groundwork.

It was a lot of showing up every day, making connections, networking, creating content, putting out offers, doing all these things. And I just had to have blind faith.

Because it’s really hard in that moment when there’s not enough money coming in, but I kept showing up anyways

Because I knew that I was in that stage where I was putting in the energy to get my train up to speed.

And wouldn’t you know it, just around the one year mark, people started reaching out to me with opportunities like podcast guesting and teaching in their communities and collaborations of all kinds.

All of a sudden, things were happening.

But it took all of that groundwork and effort to get my train to that point of momentum.

What to do when you notice something is working

(Now, if you don’t even know what you should be doing for your marketing, that’s a different conversation. That’s what I do, so definitely reach out.)

If there are marketing things that you’re doing that are giving you some traction and seem to be working:

Double down on that.

For example, if you notice that every time you guest on a podcast, or speak at a summit, you get a bump of more new enquiries for your work, double down on podcast guesting and speaking opportunities.

You already know it works for you, so figure out how you can leverage it more, and do it consistently.

This is crucial.

It’s how you can grow your business without working yourself into the ground and burning out.

You can even rinse and repeat each 90-day period, where you can look back and figure out what was working for the last 90 days, and then map out how you can double down on it.

So there you have it. The 90 Day Rule of Marketing is the reason consistency works so well and is so important for your business.

There will still be days when you’re like “Oh my gosh, I don’t have any discovery calls, this is terrible, what am I doing wrong??”

Whenever this happens, I want you to take a deep breath and remember this rule.

Trust that if you’re being consistent with your marketing efforts, if you’re making new connections, if new people are learning about you, your business should look better in 90 days and you’ll be closer to your goals.